the grass is not always greener on the other side?
I read this article http://www.mggpillai.com/article.php3?sid=2110 on M.G.G. Pillai's website; I felt that it sort of sums up the general 'sentiments' about certain things which happened back in Malaysia for the past few months and to a certain extent, for the past few years even.
I must fairly admit that most of the time, I will do my best to refrain from openly expressing my views and opinions regarding such matters. However, recent events especially the one which concerns Dr. Terence Gomez, a social scientist based at the Universiti Malaya truly strikes a chord in me.
I share the puzzlement of the general public at the blunt refusal of the UM administrators to approve his requests for an unpaid leave in order for him to take up a post at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva based on the reason that they still need him at the university.
Of course, the university still needs his services but personally I do not think he has the intention of abadoning his post at UM. Besides, a great honor was bestowed upon him when he was offered the post in Geneva which only serves as a testament to his standings in the academic arena, putting him in the limelight; a limelight which eventually would be equally shared by Universiti Malaya.
And now, he has no other choice but to resign if he wishes to take up the post in Geneva.
I am truly disgusted by the whole issue; especially at how academicians are being denied opportunities to 'spread their wings' (if I may use the word) by buerocratic haggling and plain shortsightedness. If such things could happen to a credible and respected scholar, what about the other professors who are just starting to think about their research?
More importantly, what signals are we sending to our undergraduates - either local or overseas - about their prospects for advacement in the academia when they have completed their studies? What impact does this issue have on the goverment's efforts to curb the brain drain from Malaysia? How does one intends to move forward when all the paths are blocked?
The way that the issue had unravelled itself so far deeply troubles me since in Malaysia, the social sciences belongs more or less to the same group as the other physical sciences i.e. chemistry, physics and biology in terms of public attention it received and the general perception towards it; all of these subjects are not mainstream courses, or to put it stereotypically, it does not have any commercial value and it will 'not put food on the table for you' if I may coined that phrase. If this could happen to a social scientist like Dr. Terence Gomez, it may possibly happen to aspiring chemists, physicists, biologist and mathematicians.
In short, his fate will somehow give a clue to MY fate; De nobis fabula narratur.
We often say that 'Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri; lebih baik hujan batu di negeri sendiri.' But when does the 'hujan batu' worth pursuing and at what costs?
I must fairly admit that most of the time, I will do my best to refrain from openly expressing my views and opinions regarding such matters. However, recent events especially the one which concerns Dr. Terence Gomez, a social scientist based at the Universiti Malaya truly strikes a chord in me.
I share the puzzlement of the general public at the blunt refusal of the UM administrators to approve his requests for an unpaid leave in order for him to take up a post at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development in Geneva based on the reason that they still need him at the university.
Of course, the university still needs his services but personally I do not think he has the intention of abadoning his post at UM. Besides, a great honor was bestowed upon him when he was offered the post in Geneva which only serves as a testament to his standings in the academic arena, putting him in the limelight; a limelight which eventually would be equally shared by Universiti Malaya.
And now, he has no other choice but to resign if he wishes to take up the post in Geneva.
I am truly disgusted by the whole issue; especially at how academicians are being denied opportunities to 'spread their wings' (if I may use the word) by buerocratic haggling and plain shortsightedness. If such things could happen to a credible and respected scholar, what about the other professors who are just starting to think about their research?
More importantly, what signals are we sending to our undergraduates - either local or overseas - about their prospects for advacement in the academia when they have completed their studies? What impact does this issue have on the goverment's efforts to curb the brain drain from Malaysia? How does one intends to move forward when all the paths are blocked?
The way that the issue had unravelled itself so far deeply troubles me since in Malaysia, the social sciences belongs more or less to the same group as the other physical sciences i.e. chemistry, physics and biology in terms of public attention it received and the general perception towards it; all of these subjects are not mainstream courses, or to put it stereotypically, it does not have any commercial value and it will 'not put food on the table for you' if I may coined that phrase. If this could happen to a social scientist like Dr. Terence Gomez, it may possibly happen to aspiring chemists, physicists, biologist and mathematicians.
In short, his fate will somehow give a clue to MY fate; De nobis fabula narratur.
We often say that 'Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri; lebih baik hujan batu di negeri sendiri.' But when does the 'hujan batu' worth pursuing and at what costs?
posted by wanaimran at
9:37 PM
11 Comments:
i pray that the silver lining will be a lot nearer when i graduate....
this is all so depressing...
as long as we CHOOSE to see all this as something NORMAL, CHANGE will never happen....
we need a paradigm shift.... and to believe that one person COULD make a difference...
To break through the apathy that has unfortunately saturated our society, I believe that the change needs to come from within; by making a choice.
True, eventually that person needs a few more people in order to ensure that the momentum of change does not slack.
But sometimes I think we spend too much time getting ourselves prepared; checking whether we have fulfilled all the criterias, drawing up models etc. until we loose our focus on the main reason we wish to initiate that change.
Sometimes, we just need to roll up our sleves and get down to business....
i heard some people say,
"hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu di negeri sendiri, lebih baik tak hujan"
be it stones or gold, it is painful if they hit u... especially the ones falling from the sky at terminal velocity...
my lecturer ones said,
"u really don't have to worry, u'll all get good jobs, very high pay, get rich.. unless u are stupid enough to get into academics."
ha ha ha
sigh, it almost seemed that i'm fighting a losing battle; an uphill task ahead of me indeed...
i pray that God will give me the strength and opportunities to presevere and initiate change, no matter however small, however insignificant and futile it might be to some people...
well, it's better to have one rather than none right?
ahh.. nvm.. ppl who get into academics are well aware of that.. we don't particularly aim to get rich, very high pay.. are we? so, it doesn't really matter..
or are we?
"The next aspect of science is its contents, the things that have been found out. This is the yield. This is the gold. This is the excitement, the pay you get for all the disciplined thinking and hard work. The work is not done for the sake of an application. It is done for the excitement of what is found out."
(Richard Feynmann from Thoughts of A Citizen Scientist)
"to presevere and initiate change, no matter however small, however insignificant and futile it might be to some people..."
mmmm... i believe u r not the only one.. but many others.. and i also believe, that these many ones are thinking exactly the same way.. the problem with this is, this change u are talking varies from one person to another.. but as a whole, they might have a lot of common features, maybe on different levels of emphasis.
why not be a little bit more tactful and collaborate with one another.. there will be a diversity of aims and methods of the change but perhaps the insignificance will become more significant, and ppl won't see it as futile.
but then again.. easy to say this things are.. since i found that there are more selfish ppl than less selfish ones.. even among those ppl who wants to make these good changes...
one could never truly discover the true intentions of others; at best, one could only speculate.
at the end of the day, it will remain just that - idle speculation....
i believe that it is preferable and more fruitful to focus on our own self, working to improve and better oneself rather than to spend unnecessary amount of time trying to 'guess' other people's true motivations....
granted, we could try to coerce others to 'serve' our own means and purpose, but in the end, the desire to change have to come from within; support and collaboration from others mainly serves to help preserve and build-up that momentum...
indeed, one of the great failings of our country is the sheer amount of untapped potential and talents among our own citizens, be it local or overseas....
true, it is easier to speak of change than to initiate it, but i think for the time being, i will settle for an increase in the awareness of such problems among the malaysians...
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